Savannah Sipple
The Butch Buys Her First Snapback Hat
It’s black with the word QUEEN stitched
across the front, bars for the rainbow subtly ticked
above the right ear. It will be months
before she wears it in public, but the bill remains
perfectly flat, straighter than she’s ever been.
When that hat finally makes its debut, the butch
will tilt the bill slightly up and look people in their eyes.
Royalty. Every time she wears it,
the butch will feel like her butchest self in muscle shirts,
sports bras, her sneakers clean. She’ll wear it proud
and still wonder if she should have bought
the snapback that said KING.
Savannah Sipple (she/her) is the author of WWJD & Other Poems (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019), which was included on the American Library Association’s 2020 Over the Rainbow Booklist for recommended LGBTQ reading. A writer from east Kentucky, her writing has been published in Salon, Go Magazine, Split This Rock, and other places. A professor, editor, and writing mentor, Sipple resides in Lexington, KY, with her wife.